Bugatti 100P racing plane conceptualized by Ettore Bugatti in the thirties will fly again

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport might be the fastest production car in the world, but believe it or not, it’s no more the fastest Bugatti that exists. There is a Bugatti that’s faster than the Veyron Super Sport; it’s a 900bhp, 800kph racing aircraft named the 100P which was designed by Ettore Bugatti back in the 1930s. Bugatti founder conceptualized the 100P to compete in the Deutsch de la Merthe Cup – a then-famous aircraft race — and planned to fit it with two 4.9-litre straight-eight engines with 450 horsepower each, which would be good enough for the plane to hit 800kph. But, Ettore had to stop working on the concept racer during the World War II and hide it from the German Army.
After close to eighty years, John Lawson and Simon Birney from California decided to revive the concept racing plane by building a flying exact replica of the 100P. They started building the aircraft in 2009 incorporating elements of the five patents that Bugatti was originally awarded for the 100P. Finally, the two have finished building it and the 100P replica is all set to fly for the first time. The inaugural flight has been planned for March 25 in Oxnard, California. Though it was designed in the thirties, it had enough futuristic elements including the two counter-rotating props mounted in tandem, V-shaped tail, forward-pitched wings and zero-drag cooling system which could have set new standards in the aero-industry back then. The replica plane would also be put on show at the Art of Bugatti exhibition at the Mullin Automotive Museum, California starting next month.